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The Materiality of
Paint Within my work I have been preoccupied with paint itself; exploring its physicality’s and exploration into surface, pigment, the nature of the mark. The significant act of pouring paint begins the process where I enhance its movement with the application of paint thinners directly onto the newly applied paint, stripping and thinning the paint allowing for a rapid trickle of movement across the board while exploring ideas into making and unmaking in the process. The paintings materialise in successive waves through this continuous movement of liquid gravity across the surface, accentuating the dynamism of surface as well as the implication of the artist’s gesture. The work is infused with incident; paint accumulates in loopy drools, fluid bulges and bristling blurs where unfamiliar bodies begin to materialize, reminiscent of Hsiao-Mei Lin’s work. These merging bodies are suggestive of biological forms which leave the viewer to debate over the ambiguities of scale. My work is a balancing act between control and accident where I influence the paint via tipping or angling in order to push it in a chosen direction. The application of paint appears accidental and spontaneous but is instead the reaction of the different thicknesses and gravitational influences at work. They are a curious blend of uncontrolled and logical construction. The initial image changes greatly during its process where I start off with vague ideas of colour, space and direction. Pouring the paint in puddles onto the canvas begins the process in which I find myself making intuitive judgements as my control lessons over the image. Thus the painting continues to change and evolve via different reaction, infusing the work with its own history and earlier ideas become merely a shadow, indicative of Dale Franks continually evolving paintings which never seem to stand totally still. Finally represented is this very organic fluidity of paint, appearing to still be wet and active giving a subtly illusion of movement. In a sense they could be termed durational as they seem to record and hold time.
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